


by no drift of circumstance

by 28ghosts



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Crossover, M/M, POV Multiple, some age adjustments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 06:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16423955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/28ghosts/pseuds/28ghosts
Summary: After a year of service on the Enterprise, Beverly Crusher requests a transfer to Deep Space Nine. She is replaced on the Enterprise by  Katherine Pulaski, whose right-hand man is one of Crusher's former students -- a recent Starfleet Academy graduate named Julian Bashir. Doctor Julian Bashir.Some time later, Captain Picard messages Dr. Crusher asking a significant favor.There is, it has been revealed, something dark that Dr. Bashir has been hiding.(AU where Bashir was initially stationed on the Enterprise.)





	by no drift of circumstance

"I need your advice, Beverly. Something's happened." The Jean-Luc of this video recording has been speaking to just above the camera, but he breathes in to brace himself and fixes his stare more directly. "I find myself at a loss, and I need your advice.

"Under...unfortunate circumstances, Dr. Pulaski uncovered something about our research director, Dr. Bashir. Bashir is, as it so happens, an Augment. To the doctor's credit, he could have concealed himself for longer. His...nature was revealed when he made the choice to risk his life to save mine."

Crusher lifts a hand to cover her mouth, as if either Jean-Luc or Julian might somehow see the unbecoming shock in her expression.

"Though it's taken me some time to come to terms with it..." Jean-Luc sighs, and he finally looks away from the camera, towards some fixed point in the distance. "I recommended Starfleet not prosecute him. With his considerable abilities, he could conceivably remained undetected for the entirety of his quite promising career. Though it was wrong for him to enlist under the circumstances he did, he acted with the dignity and honor of a true Starfleet officer, and were circumstances different..." An ironic arch to Jean-Luc's eyebrows. "...he'd be worthy of a commendation."

He fixes his stare back towards the camera again. Back towards her. "Dr. Bashir is a fine young man. He cannot be permitted to serve on the Enterprise. Not as an Augment. But if there somewhere else, under careful watch, further from Earth he could serve...well." Jean-Luc's expression goes neutral. He sighs. "I hope this message finds you in good health."

Just like Jean-Luc to drawn out a simple request like that into five minutes of polite prevarication. Never one to impose himself if he can help it. Crusher draws her hair back and smooths it down before recording a video. "Send the transfer request," she says. "I'll talk to Ben."

She evaluates the camera for a moment.

"I'm glad he saved your life, Jean-Luc. Please be careful." She has stress dreams more often than she'd care to admit of what might be happening on the Enterprise. That seems...tacky to admit. But she worries about him, she really does. To the computer, she says, "End transmission."

* * *

"I don't know that Starfleet will be happy about this," Sisko says, PADD in hand. "A Changeling _and_ an Augment on the senior staff?"

To say nothing of the station's Cardassian-on-hand, ever menacing on the sidelines. Jean-Luc hadn't been happy to hear about _that_. As if Crusher could blame him.

"He wouldn't have to be senior," says Crusher. She's reclining in the chair across from Sisko's desk, tea resting in her lap, more casual than she could have imagined being with the captain those years ago when she'd arrived on DS9.

"With credentials like this, the only place I'd want him is senior staff."

"Fair enough." Sisko has a point -- Julian's CV would be impressive enough even before serving on the Enterprise. The only thing that keeps him from being a contender for CMO is the soon-to-be-public knowledge regarding his genetic status.

Sisko sighs. "Very well, then. I don't see why not."

"Thank you, Commander."

She knows it's only because Julian Bashir worked with _her_ before she transferred from the Enterprise that he agrees, not because of Jean-Luc's strongly worded recommendation. It's strange knowing that the officer she answers to has such a strained relationship with Jean-Luc, but she understands. Crusher knows as well as any widow how strange the feelings are that you have to carry with you, in the always-after.

She even knows what it's like to blame Jean-Luc.

* * *

Beverly Crusher misses the Enterprise sometimes, maybe more often than she'd admit. But Sisko of all people understands. The Enterprise was...relatively safe, yes, and Wesley could fend for himself more than other boys his age, in certain ways at least.

But between the Enterprise and Deep Space Nine, it was obvious the better place to raise a child.

She and O'Brien are both waiting at the docking bay waiting for Bashir. He'd transferred a few months before her. Despite both being on senior staff and formerly of the Enterprise, they're not particularly close. O'Brien, though, is always affable, and he doesn't hesitate in trying for light conversation.

"Mark my words, half the Enterprise crew'll be staffed here within the year," O'Brien says. He's out of uniform, but his arms are tucked behind his back like he's waiting for an admiral to arrive. "Who d'you think's next, Worf?"

Crusher lets herself laugh, slumping against the bulkhead. Bashir's shuttle has docked, and there's only Odo's final security scan left to run. "It's hard to imagine," she says.

"I'd give him a month before tryin' to take Quark on one-on-one."

"Maybe Katherine will come and take my post," Crusher says; it earns her an earnestly distressed look from Miles.

"Doctor, please don't joke about something like that," he says.

Crusher doesn't laugh, but it's a near thing. Miles, having been closer with the non-senior staff than she ever was, certainly has heard worse about Pulaski than she has. 

"Did you know?"

"That Dr. Bashir was an Augment?" Crusher asks; Miles nods. "Goodness, no. I never would have guessed. I don't think anyone... Did you?"

"No, not at all." A tendon in O'Brien's neck jumps as he clenches his jaw. "Hadn't the slightest."

Crusher somehow has the sense that for both of them, it makes more sense in retrospect than they'd care to admit. Bashir's casual way of always having the right piece of medical trivia immediately at hand, no matter how random. His willingness to take middle-of-his-shift-night's emergency appointments without seeming tired whatsoever. So many minor medical miracles that at another doctor's hands would have been chance -- but Bashir must have known better.

What he'd claimed as intuition, as luck...it must have always been something else. Julian Bashir, an Augment. Crusher turns it over, tries to remember midnight emergency shifts with Bashir, back in the Academy. Some of it makes sense.

Oh, but none of it ever seemed malicious, did it? Bashir could be careless, yes, and sometimes socially inept, but never cruel. Ambitious in the usual way young men could be, nothing more suspect than that.

After some minutes of silence, Julian Bashir spills out through the blue security field. A bag over one shoulder, he looks stunned to be greeted. "Miles," he says first, then with cheer, perhaps forced, "Dr. Crusher--"

He does look older now. Same uniform as she last saw him in, but one more pip at the collar, and bags under his eyes. O'Brien strides forwards first to haul him into a quick hug before grabbing his shoulders. "Glad to have you here, Julian," says O'Brien.

"Welcome, Dr. Bashir," Crusher says.

Bashir looks to her with something -- relief, confusion, she's not sure what. Both, probably. "Er," he says.

"Welcome to Deep Space Nine," Crusher says, nodding once.

He fights it, but after a moment, he grins, big and relieved and clearly sick with nervousness. There's bags under his eyes, and when he adjusts the bag over his shoulder (personal items? -- a teddy bear, Crusher remembers vaguely), she sees his nails are ragged.

It's a strange new detail to add to her conception of Julian Bashir. He's always seemed so composed, so dignified. To imagine him biting his nails on a transport ship, well -- it makes her stomach sink. She thinks of Wesley, always so eager to please.

Let Wesley have no secrets this deep, she thinks, as she steps forward to hug Bashir too. He's so young. His breath jerks in, abrupt, involuntary, when she squeezes his shoulders. His parents who did this to him -- who would do that to a child?

The both of them walk Bashir to his new quarters. It's awful how grateful he seems for the company. O'Brien chatters about the holosuites as compared to the holodecks on the Entreprise. "Basically no safety failures in the past decade, even under Cardassian control," Miles says, leaning in close.

They leave Bashir at his new quarters. He's due to meet Sisko in the station morning.

"He's really the same old Julian," O'Brien mutters to himself in the turbolift.

"I expected nothing less," Crusher says.

O'Brien nods.

Crusher knows O'Brien has worked with Starfleet Intelligence before and also knows better than to assume O'Brien's interest in Bashir is entirely founded in comraderie.

It's a strange thing to think too long on, and so she tries not to think about it.

So much easier than thinking of Bashir as the MD student who'd had such uncomfortable questions about detecting Augments. As the student who'd worked forty hours straight, once, and not looked as haggard as he did arriving at DS9.

Still, though, it keeps her up. As perhaps it ought.

Safe on the station, Wesley sleeps in the next room. Odo has threatened yet again to charge him if he's caught with Jake and Rom, glowering over the promenade together. And despite it all, Crusher is so fiercely glad that Wesley has friends here, even if they're sometimes cruel in the way that children can be.

She finds it hard to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> title from Hamlet.
> 
> this will be three chapters: one from Bev, one from Garak, the last from Bashir.
> 
> thank you for reading -- all kudos/comments appreciated more than you know <3


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